I suppose I did read my tea leaves wrong. Granted, I'm sure that I wasn't far off by some well accepted margin of error--such as pre-war predictions of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But atleast two of my hopes were fulfilled: the game was close and it did turn into an entertaining affair. h3. Trench Fight "Greg, this is an ugly football game." - CBS' Phil Simms commented to Greg Gumble, shortly after New England scored the games first touchdown. That's not to say though that the first half was boring throughout. There were some points of tactical interest in the first half, such as the old school showdown between the Carolina defensive line and New England offensive line. Thankfully, the NFL's premier event finally kicked into gear once the first points did go up on the scoreboard. An exciting exchange of two-minute drills soon followed and the second half seemed a much more interesting proposition than the first. then we had to endure an exceptionally long halftime. h3. That Halftime Show I guess I missed most of the hoopla surrounding the breast incident between the ex-backdoor--ur--N'Sync boy and the only-reputable-remaining-Jackson. I suppose I had already had my fill of Super Bowl glitzieness when that dorky, space-suited astronaut popped out of the stage for Josh Groban's otherwise decent tribute to NASA--it was so terribly gaudy that I nearly laughed up a lung by kick-off. Anyway, while I was off to endure the ridiculous 35 minute break, events transpired that compelled comissioner Paul Tagliabue to release a prominent statement: bq. We were extremely disappointed by the MTV-produced halftime show. It was totally inconsistent with assurances our office was given about the content of the show. bq. The show was offensive, inappropriate and embarrassing to us and our fans. We will change our policy, our people and our processes for managing the halftime entertainment in the future in order to deal far more effectively with the quality of this aspect of the Super Bowl. A fairly scathing indictment of MTV and that much more damning considering that it comes from a league with its share of violent criminals and PR disasters. h3. Close Finish There's probably just too much to absorb from what was a record setting fourth quarter. Both the Pats and Panthers broke stereotype and scored like a ping-pong game. There are a few points that standout above the rest: * Muhsin Muhammad and Steve Smith are terribly underrated. Both have the ability to make moves while the ball is still in the air. Combine that with the way they manage to break clean off the line and, frankly, Muhammed and Smith manage to make Carolina's passing game look better than it may actually be. No wonder then that most of the Panther's late game heroics come down to their aerial attack's big-play nature and not to a West-Coast-type reliance on consistancy. * Warren Sapp can kiss Richard Seymour's kiester when it comes to earning accolades for the most dominant defensive tackle in the game to also moonlight on offence. * Is it just me or did Stephen Davis continuously flatter to deceive in the post-season? I know he was knocked out by injury in both previous playoff game and his o-line were outgunned in this game. But, Davis is never going to get the recognition deserving of one of the league's best rushers-and he is one of the best running backs in the game during the regular season--until he can dominate in the playoffs. * You can blame John Kasay's poor kickoff for the great field position provided for the Patriots' drive for a game winning field goal. But what the heck happened in the Carolina secondary? Don't run a prevent by any means, but how can a team with such a dominant front four not manage to take away the deep-seam routes like the one exploited by Deion Branch to setup the field goal. To give up 64 yards on six plays with only 68 seconds on the clock is not something I expected from the league's most consistent defence. * Tom Brady may well be the Joe Montana of his generation. Perhaps the days of the old-fashioned, cool and efficient field-general are not dead after all. h3. Split the MVP into Fifths Tom Brady is not a poor pick for most valuable player by any means. But if I could pick the most significant contribution to this game, it would have to be the solid performance by the Patriots' unheralded offensive line. I expected the Panthers defensive front-four of Rucker, Jenkins, Buckner and Peppers to flat out dominate the line of scrimmage for the duration of the game. Perhaps they even would have if not for the clever game planning and effective blocking schemes employed by the Patriots. As it happened, it was the lowkey quintet that blocked all night for Tom Brady and Antowain Smith, thus defining the tone of the game. And in a game that often harkened back to the days of old school football, with its grinding battles in the trenches, the Patriots offensive line carried the day.